Featuring Leigh....

I have become acquainted and befriended by one of my dad's clients and she had been struggling a lot with her feelings and dealing with her food issues (we all have them.) I just encouraged her over and over again to get it down on paper, write it out. I am sure if you are one of my clients you've heard me say this before, but journaling and blogging are really key to mastering our emotional connections to our weight and conqueroring  our frustrations! Well, she finally did it! She sent me a copy of her first journal entry and I asked permission to feature it here on my blog this week. She was more than happy to share.

Feel free to leave any encouraging words behind to my friend! I'm so incredibly proud of her and her journey this far. She blesses my sox off and I'm sure she'll bless yours as well..... 

July 15, 2010

I did my measurements for the first time…wow, I am huge!!!  I was bigger though, because I have lost 38 pounds in 10 weeks on TSFL.  This week I have passed up popcorn at the theater, homemade blueberry pie and homemade truffles…that’s really good and I don’t know why I am not excited about those small victories.  Charity and Robin were both telling me how I should celebrate that….but I don’t ‘feel’ victorious…I feel the pain and frustration of the struggles and why is it so hard for me anyway.  How did I get this fat.  Almost 8 years ago, exactly, I was 413 pounds!  I had done every weight loss program, and fad diet that I had ever heard of. I even had anorexia for a short time and then bulimia for over 13 years.  So, 8 years ago on July 10, 2002,   I finally was going under the knife…I had an open RNY Long limb gastric bypass surgery.  I knew I could die on the table…but I was so desperate to get the weight off after a lifetime of obesity that I was willing to go to this extreme.  The surgery was a success and I lost 213 pounds the first year….I was still overweight, but I was down to a size 16 from a 5x and I felt pretty good.  Over the next 8 years, I gained 81 pounds pack.  I wasn’t 413, but I was huge and back into a 2x.  My life was miserable.  The weight sapped my energy and I had/have severe depression.  Although the surgery was a huge help, I still never changed my lifestyle, other than staying away from sugar because it makes me ill. Also, resulting from the surgery,  I suffer anemia and deficiencies in vit D, and B-12, which my body no longer absorbs.  Why hasn’t my weight stayed off and progressed to a healthy weight?  I know it is because of not eating the right foods and exercising.  I still was eating a lot of breads and other carbs.  In fact I worked at a bread store/bakery for 3 years and then back in the school kitchens as a cook…always around food and always eating.  Even though my stomach ‘pouch’ is about 8 to 10 oz. now, I can eat the wrong foods in small increments all day long and gain weight…which is what I have done.  Even the extremity of having a gastric bypass did not ‘fix’ my weight and health problems.  I was gaining weight, having poor health, knee problems, energy problems and major depression.  I felt so hopeless.

At church I noticed a friend, Steve, who all of a sudden to me looked very thin.  I found out he was on TSFL.  I envied him, but thought no way was that for me…it’s just another fad diet.  Plus, what would my husband and family say about me trying yet another attempt at losing weight…I mean, I have been on EVERY diet I ever heard of, spent thousands of dollars and was still fat.  I dwelled in my hopelessness for a few more weeks and then brought it up to my husband.  I said, ‘I know what I want for my birthday”…my 44^th birthday was just a month away.  When I told him that I wanted 1 month on the diet that Steve was on…he said, “that’s really expensive…but okay, let’s check into it.”  I was really surprised that he was considering it.  We are the family that struggles month to month, payday to payday etc.  We had no savings or credit cards …nothing.  We talked to Steve and he explained the program and just prior to my birthday I ordered the first month supply of food.  I was skeptical but praying so hard to God that I would lose some weight.  My first week on program was hard.  For the first five days I was hungry, nauseous…had headaches, exhaustion etc….pretty much felt like poop…but Steve said that was normal for a few days and that it would get better.  By the 6^th day I didn’t have those symptoms and I was looking forward to weighing in on Sunday.  My first week’s weight loss was 11 pounds!  I was very proud and hopeful at that point.  I believed this could work and that I could lose some of this weight.  I needed to lose at least 101 pounds to put me around 180, a high-end healthy weight for my height etc.  This huge amount to lose was overwhelming, but I was encouraged enough by my first week’s loss to keep going. I heard there were many people who had lost over a hundred pounds on TSFL.   I made it through my first month with no cheating and a loss of 21 pounds.  I ordered the next month of supplies and kept going….it’s been 10 weeks now and I have lost 38 pounds!  I still suffer depression and that prevents me from the ‘feel good’ part of losing and getting healthy, but I am sticking to the program, going to meetings and communicating with Steve, Robin and Charity.  I feel like I have 3 health coaches who are all willing to help me and support me and I am blessed to be so fortunate.  I don’t feel alone anymore in my struggles with obesity.  My husband and children also encourage me to stay on program and they ask about my loss every Sunday and compliment me on doing a good job, or looking good.  They don’t complain about me making lean and green dinners and they don’t mock me for not tasting the fresh blueberries from our garden or the chocolate truffles Heidi made…they say, “good job, mom’.

I am hoping that as I get healthier, my family will get healthier too.  I want there to be a turning point to where I become more active and do some active activities with the kids as they too struggle with obesity.  I want to change our future and not be the fat family on the block who stay home and never do anything.  We’ve started swimming together this month, yes, I put on a swimsuit, so that is a start to being more active for me.  I will continue on program and continue working with my psychiatrist on my depression and am hoping for a ‘fully healthy me’ someday.  I give God praise for orchestrating these changes in my life; and gratitude to my family and coaches who are my encouragement.

If you are interested in having a coach, being a coach,  learning more about Take Shape For Life, learning about the role of a health coach, nutrition, weight loss or have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me anytime! 503-936-9728  or husk7736@comcast.net  Tonight in Hillsboro, OR and tomorrow night in Gresham, OR (see below for locations and times) you can come and meet with me in person and learn more as well! Don't wait another day! Experience HOPE now!

Take Aways And 'Ah Hah!' Moments

Take Shape For Life National Convention 2010 was life altering. It built on things I already knew. It added height to training I received in Orlando back in April. It has the potential to change America. 

Thursday morning we heard from speaker Brian Biro who taught us about 'break through moments.' To take that lesson to the extreme, we broke 1" boards with our hands. Yeah. It was nuts a little bit. We were supposed to write down things that were holding us back on the side with the 'X' on it. And on the back side, we put what our life would be like if we broke through that barrier. In case you want to know about mine, read on.

The side with the 'X' on it had "Good Enough" written on it.  I've lost 120 lbs. I've kept it off for a year. I've climbed a MOUNTAIN! I've found a calling that fulfills my need to be purposeful. I've achieved the rank of Executive Director (top 9% of health coaches) But I stopped there. Somewhere deep down inside I didn't feel the need to improve on all that and it was holding me back. Good is the enemy of great. What would my life be like if I decided to not settle for good enough? I imagine it would look like I had confidence, health, integrity, a healthy weight. It would include more mountains, possibly some sky diving. I would be 100% present with the people I am with. I would expand my business so that I could help more people. We got the privilege of dedicating our boards and I chose to dedicate mine to my Jesus and my kids and my husband. 

I was sure I would be one of the people who couldn't break the board. But it meant so much to me that I was determined. Even as I gave Eric my board for him to hold I grabbed it back and looked at it again. I wanted "Good Enough" to know that it wasn't "good enough" anymore. See the video clip here:

Click here:  Charity's Break Through Moment 

Now the trainings and the rest of the classes were informative and inspiring but the next most powerful thing didn't happen at a real TSFL event. Some of the leaders decided to hold a church service at the Gaylord Texan Resort on Sunday morning. I was up till 2 am the night before, woke up at 8:57 am (service started at 9 am!) and for some reason, just felt like I HAD to be there. So, I tossed on some wrinkled clothes, put my hair up, tossed some make up on and SKIPPED COFFEE and breakfast (gasp) to get there. Ran in a couple minutes late but it was still good. We heard scriptures, sang some songs and listened to people share. Many people had very moving stories to share. We didn't want it to be a Take Shape For Life event but you know, we were all so thankful. At one point in our lives (I think its safe to say its the same for all of us that were there) we had prayed to God for help with our health. We all felt like God had sent us a health coach and  an answer. One gentleman was telling about how he was getting so much attention for his weight loss. He called his wife to tell her and she said "Honey, did you give Jesus the glory?" and his answer was a sheepish 'no.' This gentleman stood up and made up for that giving Jesus the glory for his health and it was so precious. Am I pointing to Jesus every time someone compliments me or tells me how I've changed their lives? Well, I want to. I was thinking about how Jesus always healed people. He would heal blindness, heal leprosy, heal blood disorders, ect - this helped form the relationship so that from there, Jesus could give them what they really need. I think that when I am coaching people about their health, that maybe that relationship could open doors to share the giver of health and life and peace and joy. 

So my Kevin McCarthy purpose is "I exist to instill bravery." Making big changes in our lives takes courage and sticking with something or someone even when it is hard takes bravery. I have found this out and want to inspire others to do the same.  My Jesus purpose is to point people to Him, all the time. In order to do this I need to always be filling up my cup, every day, full of Jesus, so that by the end of the day I have something left to give still. My TSFL purpose is to be a part of Generation-H. A generation for health and to bring health to all of America and make a difference. This will take commitment on my part because I love Texas toast and peanut M&M's as much as the rest of you but I want to be part of this great movement and I want my kids to grow up in a healthy environment so they can be fit enough to do what God has called them to do. 

So that's it in a nutshell. My notes from the weekend are type written and 25 pages long but I am ready to tackle hopelessness, fear, obesity and poor health with God's help. 

Now I've been interrupted 100 times while trying to write this so I hope it all makes sense! Have a healthy week and I'll write y'all (a little thing I picked up in Texas) again next Tuesday! 

About the photo on top: This is my friend Crystal and my friend Amanda! Between the 3 of us, we've lost 410 lbs with Take Shape For Life! 

Mission Impossible

Finally. June 13, 2010 at aprox. 6:30 a.m. I reached the summit of Mt. Hood. For the last 8 weeks I have set aside and forsaken many things to prepare myself for this adventure. I set my mind of accomplishing this big task and refused to stop until I met my goal. I had no idea that I had that in me. To be completely honest, I don't think I had any business up there. I was not ready. My heart and my mind were in the right spot, however, I don't think my body was ready for that sort of a challenge. I found myself in a 'do or die' sort of situation and had to push beyond normal human capabilities to survive. The extreme.

I have been thinking for 2 days how I could fit everything that I seen, heard and learned into one small blog entry. What are the highlights that I could share? I really don't even know where to begin. So, for now, I'll just share the facts of the climb.

We began at about 10:30 PM at Timberline Lodge. We were scheduled to meet our CAT driver at 10:45-11:00 PM. The snowcat was pretty cool. Huge, warm, lit, FAST...... it dropped us off at the top of the Palmer Ski lift which is at about 8500 feet. My research on altitude sickness shows that people are susceptible to altitude sickness above 8000 feet. So going up to that elevation within 30 minutes probably had its draw backs. I don't know though, I'm assuming. We were in no hurry at that point. We didn't want to be on the steep parts too much before day break and we did not want to be the first ones on the summit. We were hoping that the next load of climbers would lead the way so we walked slowly. By the time we reached the Hogsback, we were surrounded by good company and professional climbers.

The Class 1 climb "The South Side" as I knew it followed the Hogsback ridge up and through the Pearly Gates. The Hogsback apparently has been moving left so its not a straight shot up through the Pearly Gates anymore. Furthermore, there is a bergschrund (glacial crevasse) across the Hogsback, big enough for a semi-truck to fall in. Can't go around that huge beast. People died falling into it in 2002 (see http://www.traditionalmountaineering.org/News_HeliCrash.htm for that story and a picture) I wish I would've gotten a picture of it. Hopefully dad did. So climbers had to resort to what we refer to as "The Old Chute" This can be approached a few different ways but we followed the professional guides before us. Up and over the Hogsback, down below the fumerol pits then up the chute. The final push for the summit was terrifying to me. The wall was too steep, I didn't trust my crampons (metal teeth you strap to your shoes to grab the ice) I was tired, sore, I had a migraine that was making me want to throw up and frankly, I felt like I was at the end of my rope. But I was so close to the top it would've been embarassing and lonely to sit there and wait for the rest of my party to summit while I sat crying like a baby. So with my dad yelling at me, I put one foot in front of the other, one hand in front of the other, allowed the tears to freeze like little icicles from my nose and pushed on. Several times I got hit in the head with some ice chunks. Thank God my dad forced me to wear a dumb helmet. I think what added additional fear for me was seeing how the other groups were belaying and setting hooks and tying themselves to the mountain.... and we were not. I was so unsure of myself and seeing that others more experienced then I, were also unsure of themselves, I really would've liked to have been strapped to a Picket: (A "T" shaped length of aluminum 2' to 3' long pounded or buried in the snow for protection.) for peace of mind, if nothing else! After taking way too long on that dumb chute (I'll have nicer words for it next week, I'm sure!) we reached the summit. I have to tell you though, the whole time I'm scrambling on all fours trying to get up there, I am dreading the trip down.

You'd have thought that after all that I would've been happy to be up on the summit. I had anticipated tears, wild emotions, kissing the snow.... I just wanted to be home. It was windy, it was steep, it was scary. you could not get too close to the edges at all because the snow was over hanging and it'd just collapse with you right on top of it. I couldn't really take a ton of pictures because you'd have to take your gloves off to work the camera. First I was afraid my gloves, or my camera would blow away. Second it was cold. I did not want to remove my gloves. I got a few though. Not the pics I had imagined. I had made a banner that said "Thank you Take Shape For Life" I was going to hold up. It would've acted like a kite and blown me off the summit right into the Columbia River behind me!

The return trip: Just as scary as I imagined. We were in a hurry now, had to get out from under the ice chunks that were over our heads before the sun got too warm. We had traffic to tend with getting down. We crawled backwards on all fours, on our tippy toes, jamming the points of our crampons into the wall, trying to have 3 points on the wall at all times. I totally busted my two big toenails right in half. Even when everyone else was relaxing, taking off their ropes and helmets I was still freaked out beyond repair. So, we moved slow. We had to trek this way and that to stay out from under the avalanche paths. We did witness a pretty big avalanche just above Illumination Saddle. Now, if I had been a tad more brave, we could've started glissading down the mountain on our backsides and gotten down quicker, but I was just still too scared. The fall line (the direction a ball would roll from the top) ends up over Mississippi Head (cliffs) and I just didn't trust my ability to go fast and stop myself so I opted to walk and I walked slowly. Once the degree of the slope calmed down I did slide down, maybe about a mile on my buns and really, that was fun. I wish I had been braver now to start that up a little higher.

My little brother, Larry and his mom (my step-mom???) Robin met us at Silcox hut on the way down. I cannot believe they walked up a mile in the snow with zero sunscreen or sunglasses. They had on jeans and regular shoes. And I will never forget this kindness. Larry took my dad's backpack and Robin took mine. They carried our packs down the last mile. When we got to the lodge, I RAN to the bathroom and Robin met me in the car there so I wouldn't have to walk over to my car. When we got back to their RV Robin let me sleep (I slept for 3.5 hours!) and I woke up to hot soup, coffee, chicken and a salad! Robin took such good care of me when I got back to the trailer and I get a little emotional when I think about how grateful I am for her.

The lessons learned are abundant. It may take me time to process each one into words. The trip was the hardest thing I ever did in my life. I would've quit so many times if I didn't have someone yelling at me, pushing me forward and telling me I could when I thought I could not.

In closing, I really need to emphasize that first Philippians 4:13 played on through my head over and over again. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I wouldn't not have made it to the top with prayer, without the Lord willing it. There just is no way. I also would not have made it without my dad. When he signed up for Take Shape For Life with Chemae (my health coach) one of the reasons he listed that he wanted to lose weight was so he could climb Mt. Hood with me! I cannot believe he did it! I owed him that trip. But he yelled at me a lot. LOL I really was hating him on the summit of the mountain, but isn't that what a good coach would do? Empower you to accomplish what you thought was impossible? Dad, I think that you are a great coach and I love you. Thanks for yelling at me.

Thanks to Take Shape for Life. Thank you Dr. Wayne Anderson for your vision to get America healthy. How amazing is it when people get their health (and life) back? I have not summited Mt Hood in 25 years, and my dad has not done it in 30 years. It took more than one try, but today I've got the sunburn and aching muscles to prove I made it--along with my dad and my 15-year-old son Cody. What a life! What a transformation! Between the two of us, my dad and I have lost over 200 lbs and my kids get to grow up in a healthy family! If you are interested in learning how we did this, what Take Shape For Life is all about or about how you can be a great coach like my dad, then there are a few opportunities. Tonight in Hillsboro we are having a meeting at 7 pm. There is one on the eastside in Gresham tomorrow night at 7 pm and there is one happening in Bend, Oregon on Friday/Saturday this weekend (June 18-19, 2010). If none of those time slots are open for you just call me or my dad. We'd be happy to meet with you and share our stories with you one on one in person or over the phone. Distance is no object. You don't have to live in the same state! I look forward to helping you achieve your goals. 503-936-9728 husk7736@comcast.net